Cancun was great!
Here’s a breakdown of some of our activities, along with star ratings out of five.
AeroMexico (⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️)
Loved this airline! Even though our flights were only two and a half hours each, we were provided with food each way. On the flight to Cancun we were given a sandwich and chips, and on the flight back home we were given a sandwich and container of arroz con leche. The flight attendants were very friendly and helpful, making the flight rather enjoyable. Our favorite thing about this airline was the inflight entertainment system. Each seat has a screen in front of it, with full, FREE access to newly released movies, tv series, and music. Time definitely flew by for us aboard our flights!
Krystal Grand Punta Cancun (⭐️⭐️)
This is a great hotel to stay in if you’re on a budget, but be weary of a few things.. The elevators will take at least 5 minutes to open for you, and are often “broken.” We once stood around for 20 minutes for the elevator. Stairs are not easily accessible to the guests.. And honestly, we couldn’t find them when we tried! The construction in the lobby and around the grounds starts at about 7 every morning and stops late at night. The lobby is in the center of the hotel, with everything spiraling upward from it in circles, so you can hear everything that’s going on outside your hotel room door. The walks are incredibly thin, and you can clearly hear your obnoxious neighbors stumbling in drunk at 3 in the morning and continuing the party in the room for an hour until they pass out. There is an OXXO located right across the hotel for any snack or toiletry needs that is much more reasonably priced than the store in the hotel lobby. Our walk down to the beach was short, and the water was beautiful!
Beach (⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️)
Beautiful, crystal clear, blue water and white sand! Marvelous! The only reason I didn’t give the beach 5 stars is because parts of the beach had very sharp, jagged sand with shells in it that hurt to walk through.
Food (⭐️⭐️)
As Texas residents, we are spoiled with amazing food of all kinds! As first time visitors to Cancun, we were tying excited to eat some “authentic Mexican food.” Unfortunately, we didn’t really have any! The best food we had all week came from a place in La Isla Shopping Village called Jugo de Limón and a buffet we visited with a tour to Chichen Itza located in the magical town of Valladolid. Overall, the food was not as great as we expected it to be.
Xplor (⭐️⭐️⭐️)
This tour provides a full day of thrill and excitement. Right? Eh.. Kind of. The adventure park advertises 2 zip line circuits, amphibious vehicles, underground river rafting, and an underground river/cenote to swim in. The first activity we participated in was the zip like. We were so excited! As we had our harnesses put on, we were told that each circuit would take 45 minutes – 1.5 hours to complete both. On the contrary, it took us closer to 1 hour to complete the first course, and it was already lunch time. We decided we had had enough fun and adventure on the first circuit and that we’d like to experience the other activities. On our way to the buffet for lunch, we ended up jumping into the river for a swim. A life best is required to swim at the park. The swim around the river was beautiful! Clear blue water, tiny fish swimming around you, bats flying overhead, trickling water, waterfalls, and stalactites/stalagmites all around. The buffet was good. Not great… I are a hamburger and a couple potato wedges. For dessert, we tried a bit if everything together – caramel flan, bananas in cream, arroz com leche, froyo (too slushy), and dragon fruit! If you can’t tell… Dessert was my favorite part of the meal! After lunch, we headed to the amphibious vehicles. We waited in line for about 30-40 minutes. This activity was the least fun for us.. There was hardly any water. We drive through a couple puddles maybe a foot deep. This was super disappointing because they’re advertised to be so thrilling! They were, instead, quite a bore. After all this, we only had time for one more short activity.. So we jumped in the river again for a long swim, after which we had to get dressed and start heading to drop off our helmets (had to wear them all day) and locker keys. For the money that we paid ($170 each), we were really disappointed to big be able to complete all the activities. One thing we really did appreciate was that there are cameras scattered around the park that take photos of you which can be purchased at the end of your day. We paid $80 for all of out photos, and it was totally worth not having to lug a camera around everywhere!
Xichen Deluxe Chichen Itza Tour (⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️)
Our tour guide, Raquel, and bus driver, Hector, were FANTASTIC! We had a blast on this tour and can’t say enough great things about it! The bus ride to and from Chichen Itza took about two hours each way. On the way to the ruins, we watched a video about Mayan prophecy and learned about the culture. On the way back, we watched Non-Stop, starting Liam Neeson and Julianne Moore (good movie)! The ruins were breath taking, Valladolid was beautiful, and the Zací cenote looked refreshing (we didn’t have time to hop in on the deluxe tour). This tour was incredible! We definitely recommend it for anyone visiting the area. The only thing that was really disappointing to us was that people are no longer allowed to touch or go inside the ruins. It stinks that the actions of one individual can ruin the fun for everyone else. Regardless, the experience of seeing one of the Wonders of the World was amazing!
Street Vendors (⭐️⭐️⭐️)
Some street vendors have very unique items to sell, however, most sell the exact same things. I fell in love with one little boy, and visited him and his mother to buy handmade bracelets from them everyday. I’d love to give the street vendors a higher rating, but you see the same stuff everywhere you go. The things we saw for sale in
Chichen Itza and Valladolid were much more unique than the things being sold in Cancun, though. I will give them credit for that :).
Excursion Salesmen (⭐️)
Seriously? These people made leaving our hotel everyday such a dreadful experience. Every day, every time you walk by, you’re asked to stop and look at the tours they offer. These stands are located every block or so, down both sides of the street..So literally, every few minutes you have to say “No thank you, we’ve already purchased some.” “No, gracias!” or “We’ve already gone. Thank you.” It’s super exhausting saying no to that many people. This is the largest contributing factor to us not wanting to visit Cancun again.
Atmosphere (⭐️⭐️)
Another contributing factor to why we don’t feel that we’ll ever visit Cancun again was the atmosphere. If you’re a partier, I am certain you would give the atmosphere 5 stars, but if you’re someone like me who is looking more for a place to relax… Cancun is not the place for you. Bright lights, loud music, lots of drinks sum up Cancun night life. The streets are loud and littered with drunks anytime after 10. We were hoping for a place like Maui, but closer to home and less expensive… Boy were we ever wrong!
Don’t get me wrong, our vacation was an amazing getaway! We enjoyed a lot of quality time together to see new places and experience new things. We loved the experience, but will we go back to visit Cancun again? Probably not. We’ve heard that places nearby, such as Cozumel are much nicer and calmer. Maybe we’ll give those places a chance 😀.
Have you ever been to Cancun? What was your experience like?
Live. Love. Learn.
Roxana
As students enter the classroom, they will each take their ID badge and clip it to their shirt from the pocket chart. Once inside the classroom, each child then has the responsibility of making their lunch choice for the day. 
Cutsey little corner where photos from school years prior, restroom/hallway/library passes, restroom log binder, emergency drill bucket, and recess bucket live. 
My classroom library! You can’t really tell, but along the back wall, I’ve set up some milk crates and plastic buckets as bookcases. We’re awaiting 140 books from Donors Choose! My word wall is located in my library area. The letters are laminated and have magnetic strips on the backs, so that stuck easily to my board. The orange “table” to the left of my library is actually a tub I used to store classroom materials in over the summer. This way, I don’t have to take it home and bring it back again at the end of the year! 😉
Academic bulletin boards inside the classroom take up practically all of our wall space. Anchor charts and vocabulary will be displayed in these places within their designated subject area. You’ll notice a mini trash can, supply caddy, and rolly cart at each table. Each table has these materials available to minimize excuses! Students no longer have the excuses, “I need to sharpen my pencil,” “I have trash to throw away,” or “I need to get my notebook from my cubby.” Everything students need is located right at their desks. 😀
My white board is complete with the ABCs and number line from 0-100! My CHAMPS can also be seen below my white board (I’m thinking of adding “Be a…” above the CHAMP. 
Welcome to my teacher corner/small group area! I’m happy to say that everything I need is in this corner of the room – organized inside my teacher toolbox or inside binders. To jazz up this space a little bit, I draped a plastic tablecloth ($1 at Family Dollar) over a student desk to make it look a little more snazzy tucked away in my corner. You can also see my bucket storage seats in place here. 😀
Turn-in center! Also found here are my privacy folders, math manipulatives, construction paper, and lined writing paper. The top of the bookcase is adorned with pictures and mementos from previous classes. 
My hallway bulletin boards are fun and colorful. This is where most of our student work will be displayed!
Live.Love.Fully 